In partnership with The Svane Family Foundation, Host Emily Wilson spends time with playwright & activist Donna Personna.
Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Emily & AIA is glad to partner with The Svane Family Foundation's Culture Forward initiative — a $5 million grant program to support arts and culture projects in downtown San Francisco.
Today, Emily chats with Donna Personna, a San Francisco-based artist, activist, and 2019 San Francisco Pride Parade grand marshal.
Donna talks with Emily about her mixed-media triptych *Home in the Promised Land*, created for the Svane Family Foundation's 2020 artist grant program; growing up in Texas and San Jose, and discovering San Francisco's queer community as a teenager at Compton's Cafeteria; then co-writing the play *Compton's Cafeteria Riot* with the Tenderloin Museum, dramatizing the 1966 transgender uprising against police harassment — three years before Stonewall.
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About Artist Donna Personna:
Donna Personna (She/Her) is a transgender rights activist and fine art artist, who focuses in photography, painting, and mixed media. Personna was friends with The Cockettes and played a part in Elevator Girls in Bondage. Personna co-wrote a play about the Compton Cafeteria riot, one of the first recorded LGBT-related riots in United States history, and marking the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco. Personna moved to San Francisco at age 19 and has served on the boards of the Trans March and Transgender Day of Remembrance. In 2018, she raised San Francisco’s first Transgender flag at San Francisco City Hall with Mayor London Breed. In 2019, she was a Grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride Parade.
Follow Donna on Instagram: @Donna.Personna
For Tickets & Info on Compton's Cafeteria Riot, CLICK HERE
For More on Donna's work with The Svane Family Foundation, CLICK HERE
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women’s Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com